Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies is a part of the Faculty of Theology, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada. A centre of higher learning, research, ecumenical understanding and prayer communicating the power of Christian Faith and living Tradition so that all may share in the very life of God. Visit online at MASI
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Christmas with the Monks of Kyiv Pecherska Lavra
Here is an inexpensive download from magnatune.com and is available to listen to for free on your computer. Click HERE
+ Fr. Bob Anderson
On Sunday, December 26, 2010, our friend Archpriest Robert Anderson reposed in the Lord. Below is a tribute by Dr. Adam DeVille that appears on the RISU website:
I have always taken off my skoufia to the Archpriest Robert Anderson, an Eastern Christian bibliophile on a scale unrivaled by anyone else I know. His library was enormous, taking up the entire basement of his house, and everyone who knew him considered him a walking encyclopedia and polyglot. If he didn't know something, or hadn't read at least six books on an Eastern theological, historical, linguistic, or cultural topic, then it was truly obscure!
He died suddenly last night in Staten Island. I had been close friends with him for nearly a decade, and wrote what lies below in tribute. (A longer version will be published elsewhere.)
It was a fiercely hot and humid day. We were trapped on a ghastly bus driving back at dusk from Lviv to our camp in Rovesnyk. The bus kept overheating and every ten minutes the driver had to stop, get out, pour some water into the engine, and wait for it to cool off. Then he would start up again, careening recklessly down too-narrow roads at break-neck pace while we all braced ourselves for what we were sure was our imminent arrival before the “awesome tribunal of Christ.” On board this rattling trap of death were all the teachers and students of the English Summer School of the Lviv Theological Academy—as it was then called in 2001.
I had gone to Ukraine with Fr. Roman Galadza to teach English that summer to students of the LTA—precursor to today’s Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU). There I met someone who would change my life: the Archpriest Robert Anderson, known to everyone as the incomparable Fr. Bob. In one of those strange twists of life, I had to go half-way around the world to meet him even though we both lived but a few hours from each other in Ontario.
A year after returning from Ukraine, I found myself at the Sheptytsky Institute in Ottawa as a doctoral student, and my friendship with Fr. Bob took off.
He lived in a charming little house on Chémin de la Montagne, enabling him to refer to himself sometimes as a mountain hermit. We had many long and wonderful conversations in that house, many meals, and much laughter. I would get to know that house intimately over the years as I not only visited regularly but looked after it every summer when he returned to Ukraine as spiritual director of UCU’s English Summer School. One summer, in fact, I got there in the nick of time as the pump on his well had exploded and begun to flood the basement. This was a problem in itself, but it was very nearly an unimaginable catastrophe because all of Fr. Bob’s many, many, many books were kept in his basement—probably because if they had been on the main floor, it would have collapsed under the weight! Fortunately we were able to get the water stopped before the books were damaged.
Fr. Bob, ordained in the Holy Land in 1972 at the hands of the late Melkite Archbishop Joseph Raya of blessed memory, spent the last two decades in and around Ottawa. In 2005 in Ottawa I asked him to put together a brief CV so that I could introduce him. This is what he sent me:
Archpriest Robert Anderson has served as pastor since 1973 of Ukrainian Greek Catholic parishes in Wilton, North Dakota; Chatham, Ontario and, since 1990, in Kingston, Ontario. He holds a B.A. in French language and literature from St. Peter’s College in Jersey City with several diplômes from the Institut Catholique in Paris, a B.Ed. from the University of Toronto, and a Masters degree in Oriental Christian Theology from Maryknoll Seminary. A teacher for over three decades in Catholic schools in the Bronx (New York), Chatham and Ottawa, he taught all grades from 5 through 13. He taught French, various religion courses and world religions in English as well as in French immersion programs. Fr. Robert retired from teaching in June 2004 and now continues to dedicate his time to his parish, evangelization in the Eastern Churches and as one of the dukhovnyks at Holy Spirit Seminary in Ottawa. He has been spiritual director of the English Summer School of the Ukrainian Catholic University in L’viv for the past six years.
I left Ottawa in July 2007, but Fr. Bob and I talked regularly on the phone, exchanged e-mails almost daily, and saw each other whenever we could. His normal practice, after celebrating Christmas liturgy at his parish in Kingston, was to travel to his sister's in New York for the holidays. He was there again this year when, suddenly, on Sunday December 26, 2010, he collapsed and died.
In previous years when he was there we would invite him to my in-laws just across the border in Connecticut for drinks and dinner. My in-laws, who grew up in the Bronx, loved hosting Fr. Bob, not least for his endless supply of fascinatingly “useless trivia” (as he would put it) about New York City and environs. My sons—including Aidan, whom Fr. Bob baptized in Ottawa on Theophany in 2007—were endlessly fascinated with what he called his “big rug” (i.e., long beard) and always loved to see him, as did we all.
And now he is gone. When I received the stunning news, my thoughts turned back to the eloquent homily of Joseph Ratzinger from June 1988 at the funeral of his friend Hans Urs von Balthasar:
Indeed Fr. Bob taught me how to believe, impressing on me in a singular way the fact that, as he always put it, “Christianity is a way to survive death.”
Those of us who are academics are often in danger of over-complicating things, but Fr. Bob, a master teacher with a New Yorker’s impatience for obfuscation and nonsense (he would have used a different word: bullsh**t), always got right to the heart of the matter: Christ has destroyed death and His followers can live forever. Now, when I try to explain to my students the wonderful, if maddeningly complex, world of Eastern Christianity, I am able to say that if they don’t remember the date of the Union of Brest, or the number of the sacraments, or the name of a particular icon, they must at least remember the one simple, beautiful truth at the heart of all Christianity, Western and Eastern: Christos Anesti!
May his Memory be Eternal! Вічная Память!
Photos from the funeral
40 Day Priestly Parastas
Friday, February 4, 2011 7:00 pm
St John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Shrine
952 Green Valley Crescent, Ottawa, Ontario
He died suddenly last night in Staten Island. I had been close friends with him for nearly a decade, and wrote what lies below in tribute. (A longer version will be published elsewhere.)
It was a fiercely hot and humid day. We were trapped on a ghastly bus driving back at dusk from Lviv to our camp in Rovesnyk. The bus kept overheating and every ten minutes the driver had to stop, get out, pour some water into the engine, and wait for it to cool off. Then he would start up again, careening recklessly down too-narrow roads at break-neck pace while we all braced ourselves for what we were sure was our imminent arrival before the “awesome tribunal of Christ.” On board this rattling trap of death were all the teachers and students of the English Summer School of the Lviv Theological Academy—as it was then called in 2001.
I had gone to Ukraine with Fr. Roman Galadza to teach English that summer to students of the LTA—precursor to today’s Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU). There I met someone who would change my life: the Archpriest Robert Anderson, known to everyone as the incomparable Fr. Bob. In one of those strange twists of life, I had to go half-way around the world to meet him even though we both lived but a few hours from each other in Ontario.
A year after returning from Ukraine, I found myself at the Sheptytsky Institute in Ottawa as a doctoral student, and my friendship with Fr. Bob took off.
He lived in a charming little house on Chémin de la Montagne, enabling him to refer to himself sometimes as a mountain hermit. We had many long and wonderful conversations in that house, many meals, and much laughter. I would get to know that house intimately over the years as I not only visited regularly but looked after it every summer when he returned to Ukraine as spiritual director of UCU’s English Summer School. One summer, in fact, I got there in the nick of time as the pump on his well had exploded and begun to flood the basement. This was a problem in itself, but it was very nearly an unimaginable catastrophe because all of Fr. Bob’s many, many, many books were kept in his basement—probably because if they had been on the main floor, it would have collapsed under the weight! Fortunately we were able to get the water stopped before the books were damaged.
Fr. Bob, ordained in the Holy Land in 1972 at the hands of the late Melkite Archbishop Joseph Raya of blessed memory, spent the last two decades in and around Ottawa. In 2005 in Ottawa I asked him to put together a brief CV so that I could introduce him. This is what he sent me:
Archpriest Robert Anderson has served as pastor since 1973 of Ukrainian Greek Catholic parishes in Wilton, North Dakota; Chatham, Ontario and, since 1990, in Kingston, Ontario. He holds a B.A. in French language and literature from St. Peter’s College in Jersey City with several diplômes from the Institut Catholique in Paris, a B.Ed. from the University of Toronto, and a Masters degree in Oriental Christian Theology from Maryknoll Seminary. A teacher for over three decades in Catholic schools in the Bronx (New York), Chatham and Ottawa, he taught all grades from 5 through 13. He taught French, various religion courses and world religions in English as well as in French immersion programs. Fr. Robert retired from teaching in June 2004 and now continues to dedicate his time to his parish, evangelization in the Eastern Churches and as one of the dukhovnyks at Holy Spirit Seminary in Ottawa. He has been spiritual director of the English Summer School of the Ukrainian Catholic University in L’viv for the past six years.
I left Ottawa in July 2007, but Fr. Bob and I talked regularly on the phone, exchanged e-mails almost daily, and saw each other whenever we could. His normal practice, after celebrating Christmas liturgy at his parish in Kingston, was to travel to his sister's in New York for the holidays. He was there again this year when, suddenly, on Sunday December 26, 2010, he collapsed and died.
In previous years when he was there we would invite him to my in-laws just across the border in Connecticut for drinks and dinner. My in-laws, who grew up in the Bronx, loved hosting Fr. Bob, not least for his endless supply of fascinatingly “useless trivia” (as he would put it) about New York City and environs. My sons—including Aidan, whom Fr. Bob baptized in Ottawa on Theophany in 2007—were endlessly fascinated with what he called his “big rug” (i.e., long beard) and always loved to see him, as did we all.
And now he is gone. When I received the stunning news, my thoughts turned back to the eloquent homily of Joseph Ratzinger from June 1988 at the funeral of his friend Hans Urs von Balthasar:
Mourning and consolation touch one another at the death of a believer. We mourn him because he is no longer among us. Never again shall we be able to hold a conversation with him, never again obtain his advice. We shall need him so often, but shall seek for him in vain. But there is also consolation in this sorrow: his life has taught us how to believe.
Indeed Fr. Bob taught me how to believe, impressing on me in a singular way the fact that, as he always put it, “Christianity is a way to survive death.”
Those of us who are academics are often in danger of over-complicating things, but Fr. Bob, a master teacher with a New Yorker’s impatience for obfuscation and nonsense (he would have used a different word: bullsh**t), always got right to the heart of the matter: Christ has destroyed death and His followers can live forever. Now, when I try to explain to my students the wonderful, if maddeningly complex, world of Eastern Christianity, I am able to say that if they don’t remember the date of the Union of Brest, or the number of the sacraments, or the name of a particular icon, they must at least remember the one simple, beautiful truth at the heart of all Christianity, Western and Eastern: Christos Anesti!
May his Memory be Eternal! Вічная Память!
Photos from the funeral
40 Day Priestly Parastas
Friday, February 4, 2011 7:00 pm
St John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Shrine
952 Green Valley Crescent, Ottawa, Ontario
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Quebec bans Christmas carols in government-subsidized daycare centers
(December 28) SOURCE: Catholic Culture.org:
Quebec’s family minister, Yolande James, has banned all religious instruction in government-subsidized daycare centers. Since 1997, the province has subsidized 85% of daycare costs, with parents paying $7 per child per day.
“I want the young Quebecers who attend our daycare services to do so in a spirit of openness to others and diversity,” said Yolande James, Quebec’s family minister.
Under the new regulations, subsidized daycare centers are permitted to set up Christmas trees and Nativity scenes, but are forbidden to identify Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as figures in the scene, according to two Canadian newspaper reports. Christmas carols are also forbidden.
“At a Montreal daycare centre run by Catholic nuns, a parents association was so terrified at the prospect of losing governmental subsidies that it decided to apply the guidelines six months before they’ll be implemented,” according to Globe and Mail columnist Lysiane Gagnon. “So the week before Christmas, the little kids sang insipid Bing Crosby ballads instead of beautiful traditional carols such as ‘Silent Night.’”
To help enforce the regulations, the government is tripling the number of its daycare inspectors.
“We view it as explicit discrimination against the rights of religious communities to educate their children in the values and principles they hold dear,” said the president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, which plans to file a lawsuit.
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Lose the religion or lose the subsidy (Globe and Mail)
God tossed from daycare (National Post)
Quebec’s family minister, Yolande James, has banned all religious instruction in government-subsidized daycare centers. Since 1997, the province has subsidized 85% of daycare costs, with parents paying $7 per child per day.
“I want the young Quebecers who attend our daycare services to do so in a spirit of openness to others and diversity,” said Yolande James, Quebec’s family minister.
Under the new regulations, subsidized daycare centers are permitted to set up Christmas trees and Nativity scenes, but are forbidden to identify Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as figures in the scene, according to two Canadian newspaper reports. Christmas carols are also forbidden.
“At a Montreal daycare centre run by Catholic nuns, a parents association was so terrified at the prospect of losing governmental subsidies that it decided to apply the guidelines six months before they’ll be implemented,” according to Globe and Mail columnist Lysiane Gagnon. “So the week before Christmas, the little kids sang insipid Bing Crosby ballads instead of beautiful traditional carols such as ‘Silent Night.’”
To help enforce the regulations, the government is tripling the number of its daycare inspectors.
“We view it as explicit discrimination against the rights of religious communities to educate their children in the values and principles they hold dear,” said the president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, which plans to file a lawsuit.
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Lose the religion or lose the subsidy (Globe and Mail)
God tossed from daycare (National Post)
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Feast of Conception of Mother of God by St. Anne
Fr. Yulian Katrii of the Order of St. Basil the Great writes in his book "Know your rite" that the Gospel does not tell us much about the life of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, therefore, most of the feasts, dedicated to her, are not based on the events described in the Gospel but rather on the Christian tradition and stories of apocrypha of the first centuries. These feasts include also the Conception of St. Anne, which is celebrated in the Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches on 22 December (8 December, according to the old style).
The conception of Mary is closely connected with Her mission to become the Mother of Christ. She was to bring into the world the Son of God, therefore, God sanctified the Most Holy Virgin from the dawn of her life by giving her the privilege to be free from the original sin. The main theme of the Divine Service of the feast is the miraculous event of the conception of the Most Holy Virgin by St. Anne.
The feast of the Conception has different histories in the East and West. In the West, it underwent a big evolution. The East concentrates on the very miraculous fact of conception by old and barren parents whereas the West began to stress the attribute of the conception. Later, the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Mother of God was developed. According to it, the Most Holy Virgin Mary was preserved from the original sin from the first minute of Her life. The doctrine was most fully developed under Pope Pius IX (1846-1878), who by his bulla of 8 December, 1854 declared the Immaculate Conception a dogma of the faith.
The Eastern Orthodox Churches do not accept the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. After the proclamation of the dogma, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church began to call the feast of the conception of the Mother of God by St. Anne the Feast of Immaculate Conception of the Most Holy Mother of God. The Lviv Synod of 1891 lists the feast as one of the deiparous ones and envisages celebrating it as one of the great deiparous feasts.
Source: RISU
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Fewer than half of Americans to attend Christmas services
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Source: CatholicCulture.org
Friday, December 17, 2010
December 19 Ukrainian Greek Catholics and Orthodox Celebrate St. Nicholas Day
St. Nicholas is the guardian of soldiers, travelers, students, sailors and archers. In Ukraine, he is the patron saint of children. On the eve of December 19 children receive gifts from St. Nicholas.
St. Nicholas - the Bishop of Myra in Lycia, is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker for the many miracles attributed to his intercession.
He was born in Asia Minor in the late third century to a wealthy Christian family. Since childhood, Nicholas had special piety and compassion to the disadvantaged and poor. As a young man, Nicholas moved to Myra where the bishop ordained him as a priest.
After the death of his parents, Nicholas received an inheritance, which he gave away to the poor. Nicholas dedicated his whole life to acts of charity. It is believed that Nicholas was involved in the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325. He died on December 6, 345.
On May 22 (9) Christians celebbrate the transfer of the relics of St. Nicholas from Myra to Bari, Italy. A temple to honor St. Nicholas was built there and consecrated by Pope Urban II.
The feast of St. Nicholas came to Ukrainian lands with Christianity. The ninth rule of the Charter of the Kyiv Metropolitan George (1072) mentions that the Holy Communion was held on the day commemorating St. Nicholas. Many churches in Ukraine are dedicated to St. Nicholas.
In ancient times, on the feast of St. Nicholas people made beer, baked cookies, and celebrating with many national traditions. In contemporary Ukraine this is the biggest holiday for children.
Source: RISU
European Court: No Right to Abort
STRASBOURG, France, DEC. 16, 2010 (Zenit.org).- In a case regarding a challenge to the Irish constitution, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that there is "no human right to abortion."
The Grand Chamber of the European court decided today on the A, B and C v. Ireland case, noting that the Irish constitutional prohibition of abortion does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights.
The challenge against Irish law was brought to the court last December by three women who allegedly were "forced" to go abroad for abortions, which they claim put their health in danger.
The court decided that the country's laws do not violate the European Convention on Human Rights, which stresses the "right to respect for private and family life."
The European Centre for Law and Justice, a third party in this case, lauded the court's further recognition of the "right to life of the unborn."
Grégor Puppinck, director of the center, explained to ZENIT the concern that the court would "recognize a right to abortion" as a "new right stemming from the always broader interpretation of article 8."
However, he added, "the court did not recognize such a right;" rather, it "recognized the right to life of the unborn as a legitimate right."
Puppinck clarified that "the court doesn't recognize the right to life of the unborn as an absolute right, but as a right that has to be balanced with other competing interests, such as the health of the mother or other social interests."
Balance of interests
Nonetheless, he added, "the states hold a broad margin of appreciation in the balancing of those competing interests, even if there is a vast pro-abortion consensus in European legislation."
"This is important: The broad pro-abortion consensus in European legislation doesn't create any new obligation, like in other socially and morally discussed issues," the director asserted.
He continued: "So, a state is free to provide a very high degree of protection to the right to life to the unborn children.
"The right to life to the unborn children can legitimately overcome other competing guaranteed rights.
"As such, there is no autonomous right to get an abortion based on the convention."
Puppinck noted, "I do not remember a previous case recognizing clearly an autonomous right to life to the unborn children."
The European Centre for Law and Justice noted in a communiqué that "the natural purpose and duty of the state to protect the life of its people; the people, consequently, hold the right to have their lives protected by the state."
"The reciprocity between people's rights and the duty of the state in the field of life and security is traditionally seen as the foundation of public society; moreover, it is the foundation of state authority and legitimacy," it affirmed.
"Therefore," the statement continued, "the authority to prescribe the protection of the right to life belongs originally to the state and is exercised within the framework of its sovereignty."
Source: ZENIT
The Grand Chamber of the European court decided today on the A, B and C v. Ireland case, noting that the Irish constitutional prohibition of abortion does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court decided that the country's laws do not violate the European Convention on Human Rights, which stresses the "right to respect for private and family life."
The European Centre for Law and Justice, a third party in this case, lauded the court's further recognition of the "right to life of the unborn."
Grégor Puppinck, director of the center, explained to ZENIT the concern that the court would "recognize a right to abortion" as a "new right stemming from the always broader interpretation of article 8."
However, he added, "the court did not recognize such a right;" rather, it "recognized the right to life of the unborn as a legitimate right."
Puppinck clarified that "the court doesn't recognize the right to life of the unborn as an absolute right, but as a right that has to be balanced with other competing interests, such as the health of the mother or other social interests."
Balance of interests
Nonetheless, he added, "the states hold a broad margin of appreciation in the balancing of those competing interests, even if there is a vast pro-abortion consensus in European legislation."
"This is important: The broad pro-abortion consensus in European legislation doesn't create any new obligation, like in other socially and morally discussed issues," the director asserted.
He continued: "So, a state is free to provide a very high degree of protection to the right to life to the unborn children.
"As such, there is no autonomous right to get an abortion based on the convention."
Puppinck noted, "I do not remember a previous case recognizing clearly an autonomous right to life to the unborn children."
The European Centre for Law and Justice noted in a communiqué that "the natural purpose and duty of the state to protect the life of its people; the people, consequently, hold the right to have their lives protected by the state."
"The reciprocity between people's rights and the duty of the state in the field of life and security is traditionally seen as the foundation of public society; moreover, it is the foundation of state authority and legitimacy," it affirmed.
"Therefore," the statement continued, "the authority to prescribe the protection of the right to life belongs originally to the state and is exercised within the framework of its sovereignty."
Source: ZENIT
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Shifting the East-West Paradigm
There is a fundamental paradox in the world view of many Ukrainians. Ecclesiastically they are Eastern – whether they are Greek-Catholic or Orthodox. But socio-politically and culturally as well as economically, their orientation is Western. They see themselves as a part of Europe.
This would not be a problem if one could neatly separate religion from society, politics, culture, and economics. But historians as well as churchmen have seen many connections between the Byzantine, "Orthodox" tradition and certain political, social, economic and cultural phenomena that are anything but Western. Some have argued that in countries like Russia, Orthodoxy has gone hand in hand with autocracy, socio-economic backwardness, and cultural conservatism. Conversely, Roman Catholicism has been identified with cultural flourishing, while Protestantism has been tied to the growth of capitalism and the development of modern, democratic states.
As a result, some Ukrainian Greek-Catholic and even Orthodox leaders have seen Western, Latin influences as positive for both church and society. The Latinizing reforms of the Synod of Zamosc (1720) were seen as progressive, just as the introduction of mandatory priestly celibacy in the 1920s was regarded as a modernizing reform of a backwards Byzantine clergy. Indeed, the Eastern-oriented Russophilism of much Greek-Catholic clergy from the 1860s was considered a symptom of cultural retardation. After all, the Russian clergy itself was being attacked by Russian liberals for its political and cultural conservatism and anti-intellectualism, while patriotic Ukrainians in Russia regarded the Orthodox Church as one of their bitterest enemies.
In reaction to russophilism, Bishop Hryhorii Khomyshyn of Stanyslaviv saw all Byzantinism as inevitably leading to schism, Russian-style autocracy and, ultimately, to Bolshevism. To Bishop Khomyshyn, one could not be culturally Western while clinging to an Eastern ecclesiastical orientation. Even today, this Westernizing tradition is alive, particularly, it seems, in Bishop Khomyshyn's eparchy, now known as Ivano-Frankivsk. Nearly half a century of Russian Orthodox domination seemed to confirm his views, or at least to give Western Ukrainians an acute allergy to Byzantinism in its Russian redaction.
But Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky succeeded in uncoupling Byzantinism from its compromising association with Russian Orthodoxy. Condemning the East-West hybrid orientation of "Uniatism," he proposed a Greek Byzantine path for his church, one that would avoid the pitfalls of Russian Orthodoxy without falling into the trap of latinization and polonization. In the vision of his followers, the Eastern tradition was thus divided into reactionary Russophile and enlightened Kyivan Byzantine variants.
Did Metropolitan Andrei succeed in persuading Ukrainians that a Greek Byzantine church orientation in the Kyivan tradition could be harmonized with a Western socio-political, cultural and economic stance? Or do they believe that in religious as well as secular affairs, the more Western we are, the better?
Before we try to answer this question, perhaps we should reconsider what we mean by "East" and "West." Quite often, these are code words for something that has little to do with geographic categories. Rather, they stand for political and cultural concepts.
To Ukrainians, as to Poles, the "East" often means Russia, in all its darkness and barbarism. Thus, the word is practically the opposite of "civilization." Certainly it does not refer to China, Japan, or India – or even the Near or Middle East – areas whose cultural heritage is much older than that of any Slavic nation. Correspondingly, "West" often means everything that is civilized and enlightened – represented by England and France, Germany and Italy – though not by phenomena like anti-semitism, religious persecution, Marxism, or fascism, all of which have a long tradition in that same West. Moreover, the political notions of "East" and "West" do not coincide with their geographic meanings. After all, Cossack democracy flourished in the East, as did Polish-Lithuanian republicanism.
Nor do the cultural meanings of these terms coincide with the points of the compass. Kyiv may regard Byzantium (Constantinople) as "the East," but that city is on a meridian of longitude to the west of Kyiv's. While Ukrainians may think of it as modern Istanbul, overwhelmingly Islamic and therefore Asian, it is geographically in Europe. From a Ukrainian perspective, then, the world center of Orthodoxy is both western and European. At the same time Vienna, the old Habsburg bastion of Germanic Catholicism, is in fact further east than Slavic Prague.
Within the religious realm itself, the geographical symbolism of "East" and "West" has misled us into thinking of them as opposites. That this is not so was recently confirmed at a conference titled "Orthodox Constructions of the West." Held on June 28-30, 2010 at Fordham University in New York, it was co-sponsored by the university's Orthodox Christian Studies Program and its Center for Medieval Studies. The conference, most of whose speakers were Orthodox Christians (including the Ukrainian Catholic University's Professor Antoine Arjakovsky), reportedly "sought to understand how 'Orthodox authors ... had created artificial categories of "East" and "West" and then used (them) as a basis for self-definition" (Gary W. Jenkins, "Identity Papers: Orthodoxy's Self-Definition and Its Constructions of the West," Touchstone, November-December 2010, p. 53). It seems that both Catholics and Orthodox have created a false opposition between Eastern and Western church traditions.
Whether one thinks of East and West as two groups of traditions within the Catholic communion or as two aspects of the Christian Church, what is needed is a concept of East and West as existing in a complementary relationship. Just as in a choral counterpoint, each voice hears the others as well as the total effect, while continuing to sing its own part, so the Greek-Catholic Church can continue to develop its Kyivan Byzantine tradition while remaining conscious both of the Latin tradition and of the harmony of traditions within the Catholic communion. Similarly, Ukrainian Orthodoxy remains Eastern while growing in a dialectical relationship with Western Christianity.
The same occurs on the level of civilization. Ukraine belongs to a European civilization that includes Eastern and Western traditions, Byzantium as well as Rome. For the real conflict is not between East and West, or between Europe and Asia, or even Europe and Russia. It is between civilization and barbarism – a barbarism that cannot be located in someone else's culture, but exists within us. And from the point of view of the Church, the conflict is not between Roman and Byzantine traditions, but between a Christian civilization and none at all.
Source; RISU, Andrew Sorokowski's column
This would not be a problem if one could neatly separate religion from society, politics, culture, and economics. But historians as well as churchmen have seen many connections between the Byzantine, "Orthodox" tradition and certain political, social, economic and cultural phenomena that are anything but Western. Some have argued that in countries like Russia, Orthodoxy has gone hand in hand with autocracy, socio-economic backwardness, and cultural conservatism. Conversely, Roman Catholicism has been identified with cultural flourishing, while Protestantism has been tied to the growth of capitalism and the development of modern, democratic states.
As a result, some Ukrainian Greek-Catholic and even Orthodox leaders have seen Western, Latin influences as positive for both church and society. The Latinizing reforms of the Synod of Zamosc (1720) were seen as progressive, just as the introduction of mandatory priestly celibacy in the 1920s was regarded as a modernizing reform of a backwards Byzantine clergy. Indeed, the Eastern-oriented Russophilism of much Greek-Catholic clergy from the 1860s was considered a symptom of cultural retardation. After all, the Russian clergy itself was being attacked by Russian liberals for its political and cultural conservatism and anti-intellectualism, while patriotic Ukrainians in Russia regarded the Orthodox Church as one of their bitterest enemies.
 |
| Bishop Hryhorii |
In reaction to russophilism, Bishop Hryhorii Khomyshyn of Stanyslaviv saw all Byzantinism as inevitably leading to schism, Russian-style autocracy and, ultimately, to Bolshevism. To Bishop Khomyshyn, one could not be culturally Western while clinging to an Eastern ecclesiastical orientation. Even today, this Westernizing tradition is alive, particularly, it seems, in Bishop Khomyshyn's eparchy, now known as Ivano-Frankivsk. Nearly half a century of Russian Orthodox domination seemed to confirm his views, or at least to give Western Ukrainians an acute allergy to Byzantinism in its Russian redaction.
But Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky succeeded in uncoupling Byzantinism from its compromising association with Russian Orthodoxy. Condemning the East-West hybrid orientation of "Uniatism," he proposed a Greek Byzantine path for his church, one that would avoid the pitfalls of Russian Orthodoxy without falling into the trap of latinization and polonization. In the vision of his followers, the Eastern tradition was thus divided into reactionary Russophile and enlightened Kyivan Byzantine variants.
Did Metropolitan Andrei succeed in persuading Ukrainians that a Greek Byzantine church orientation in the Kyivan tradition could be harmonized with a Western socio-political, cultural and economic stance? Or do they believe that in religious as well as secular affairs, the more Western we are, the better?
Before we try to answer this question, perhaps we should reconsider what we mean by "East" and "West." Quite often, these are code words for something that has little to do with geographic categories. Rather, they stand for political and cultural concepts.
To Ukrainians, as to Poles, the "East" often means Russia, in all its darkness and barbarism. Thus, the word is practically the opposite of "civilization." Certainly it does not refer to China, Japan, or India – or even the Near or Middle East – areas whose cultural heritage is much older than that of any Slavic nation. Correspondingly, "West" often means everything that is civilized and enlightened – represented by England and France, Germany and Italy – though not by phenomena like anti-semitism, religious persecution, Marxism, or fascism, all of which have a long tradition in that same West. Moreover, the political notions of "East" and "West" do not coincide with their geographic meanings. After all, Cossack democracy flourished in the East, as did Polish-Lithuanian republicanism.
Nor do the cultural meanings of these terms coincide with the points of the compass. Kyiv may regard Byzantium (Constantinople) as "the East," but that city is on a meridian of longitude to the west of Kyiv's. While Ukrainians may think of it as modern Istanbul, overwhelmingly Islamic and therefore Asian, it is geographically in Europe. From a Ukrainian perspective, then, the world center of Orthodoxy is both western and European. At the same time Vienna, the old Habsburg bastion of Germanic Catholicism, is in fact further east than Slavic Prague.
Within the religious realm itself, the geographical symbolism of "East" and "West" has misled us into thinking of them as opposites. That this is not so was recently confirmed at a conference titled "Orthodox Constructions of the West." Held on June 28-30, 2010 at Fordham University in New York, it was co-sponsored by the university's Orthodox Christian Studies Program and its Center for Medieval Studies. The conference, most of whose speakers were Orthodox Christians (including the Ukrainian Catholic University's Professor Antoine Arjakovsky), reportedly "sought to understand how 'Orthodox authors ... had created artificial categories of "East" and "West" and then used (them) as a basis for self-definition" (Gary W. Jenkins, "Identity Papers: Orthodoxy's Self-Definition and Its Constructions of the West," Touchstone, November-December 2010, p. 53). It seems that both Catholics and Orthodox have created a false opposition between Eastern and Western church traditions.
Whether one thinks of East and West as two groups of traditions within the Catholic communion or as two aspects of the Christian Church, what is needed is a concept of East and West as existing in a complementary relationship. Just as in a choral counterpoint, each voice hears the others as well as the total effect, while continuing to sing its own part, so the Greek-Catholic Church can continue to develop its Kyivan Byzantine tradition while remaining conscious both of the Latin tradition and of the harmony of traditions within the Catholic communion. Similarly, Ukrainian Orthodoxy remains Eastern while growing in a dialectical relationship with Western Christianity.
The same occurs on the level of civilization. Ukraine belongs to a European civilization that includes Eastern and Western traditions, Byzantium as well as Rome. For the real conflict is not between East and West, or between Europe and Asia, or even Europe and Russia. It is between civilization and barbarism – a barbarism that cannot be located in someone else's culture, but exists within us. And from the point of view of the Church, the conflict is not between Roman and Byzantine traditions, but between a Christian civilization and none at all.
Source; RISU, Andrew Sorokowski's column
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
"Crisis of Christianity in Poland"
“We are considered the European museum of Catholicism, but let me tell you we are no longer,” said Szymon Holownia, program director for Religia TV, a relatively new station that aims to convince Poles that faith can and should be relevant in modern life with programs like a cooking show led by a nun. “The relationship between faith and state is changing; it is changing dramatically in Poland,” Mr. Holownia said. “It is really huge.”
“Twenty years of freedom and religion is evaporating,” he said. “This is the crisis of Christianity in Poland.”
See New York Times for the rest of the story
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Musical Edition of Parastasa Service Book Presented
The first volume of the musical edition of Parastasa service book containing the rite of funeral of laymen and children at ordinary and Easter times, accompanied with a CD, was presented at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv on December 9.
Auxiliary Bishop Venedykt (Aleksiichuk) of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and Exarch of Lutsk Bishop Yosafat (Hovera) stressed the importance of the edition. At the same time, Bishop Venedykt noted the lack of such literature in the UGCC and the need to begin active work in that area.
"We like to use nice phrases that all the theology of the Eastern Church is contained in service texts. But then a question arises: Where is that theology of ours, where are the translated texts? Let this collection, which is very useful for our Church, be an encouragement and reproach for us all, the members of the Church, bishops, priests, faithful that few such texts appear," stressed the bishop.
The editor and initiator of the edition, Fr. Bohdan Pushkar, who is the parish priest of the UGCC community in Bamberg, Germany, pointed to an alarming tendency to reductions, neglect, deletion of Divine Services, "which constitutes a threat that we will once find ourselves in a position where of all the rich service practice, we are left only with the Liturgy shortened by us as well."
The priest called scholars and the church leadership to pay attention to these problems and make the work in this area more active. In addition, according to Fr. Bohdan, "there is a new generation of scholars who are eager to learn the heritage and return it to church life, which needs it so much."
Another important aspect addressed by the priest is that he "would not like to do anything in our liturgical practice which would distance us from our Orthodox brethren even a little bit ... For if we give up the idea of unification, we have no right to call ourselves Christians. Unification is mutual respect and recognition: you are my brother and it hurts that we have no chance to serve at one altar. Therefore, one should not create anything new," stressed Fr. Bohdan.
Source: RUSU
Auxiliary Bishop Venedykt (Aleksiichuk) of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and Exarch of Lutsk Bishop Yosafat (Hovera) stressed the importance of the edition. At the same time, Bishop Venedykt noted the lack of such literature in the UGCC and the need to begin active work in that area.
"would not like to do anything in our liturgical practicewhich would distance us from our Orthodox brethren even a little bit ...
"We like to use nice phrases that all the theology of the Eastern Church is contained in service texts. But then a question arises: Where is that theology of ours, where are the translated texts? Let this collection, which is very useful for our Church, be an encouragement and reproach for us all, the members of the Church, bishops, priests, faithful that few such texts appear," stressed the bishop.
The editor and initiator of the edition, Fr. Bohdan Pushkar, who is the parish priest of the UGCC community in Bamberg, Germany, pointed to an alarming tendency to reductions, neglect, deletion of Divine Services, "which constitutes a threat that we will once find ourselves in a position where of all the rich service practice, we are left only with the Liturgy shortened by us as well."
The priest called scholars and the church leadership to pay attention to these problems and make the work in this area more active. In addition, according to Fr. Bohdan, "there is a new generation of scholars who are eager to learn the heritage and return it to church life, which needs it so much."
Another important aspect addressed by the priest is that he "would not like to do anything in our liturgical practice which would distance us from our Orthodox brethren even a little bit ... For if we give up the idea of unification, we have no right to call ourselves Christians. Unification is mutual respect and recognition: you are my brother and it hurts that we have no chance to serve at one altar. Therefore, one should not create anything new," stressed Fr. Bohdan.
Source: RUSU
Friday, December 10, 2010
On The Beatification of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky
"In the first half of last century, when our nation had to live through the invasion of our land by the Austrian and Russian regimes, the short period of struggle for independence, invasion of Western Ukraine by the Polish state and then by the Nazi and Bolshevik-Soviet dictatorships, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky proved to be a true father of the people and defended his people wherever and whenever he could. And during the genocide of the Jewish people, on his initiative and with his direct participation, approximately four hundred Jewish children were saved," stressed the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
According to Patriarch Lubomyr, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky is a holy man. "The process of his beatification for all his heroic virtues, which will shine as an example not only for our nation but also for other ones, is coming to its end. Let everyone pray that the day of his glorification on the Earth should come as soon as possible," wrote the head of UGCC.
In addition, in his letter, he encouraged both spiritual and secular people to study the life of Metropolitan Andrey as an example of a spiritual and national leader, a true Christian and devoted citizen.
Information of RISU:
Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky (1901-1944). For 44 years, the metropolitan led the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Galician society at the time of two World Wars and survived seven regimes: Austrian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Soviet, Nazi, and another Soviet one.
He was born on July 22, 1865, in the village of Prylbychi in Lviv Region. He was of an ancient noble Ukrainian family, which in the 19th century was polonized and converted to Roman Catholicism. Despite a strong opposition of his father, he decided to return to his roots and become a monk of the Basilian Order in order to serve the Greek Catholic Church, which at that time was popularly called "peasant" one.
At the age of 36, Andrey Sheptytsky, who was gifted with extraordinary spiritual charisma, became the head of the Greek Catholic Church. He worked relentlessly to reconcile different ethnic groups and left a rich heritage of works on social problems and spirituality. He developed new methods of ministry. He founded the Redemptorist Order of the Ukrainian Rite and monasteries of the Studite Order in Ukraine and other religious associations. He founded a hospital, national museum, and theological academy and supported various religious, cultural and educational institutions.
Metropolitan Andrey was a sponsor of artists, students, including many Orthodox Christians and a pioneer of ecumenism.
He mastered Hebrew so that he was able to communicate with the Jews. During his pastoral visits of towns, the Jewish communities met him with Torah. Under the Nazi regime, he hid hundreds of Jewish children in his chambers. At that time, the metropolitan wrote a pastoral letter "Thou shall not kill," which was a bold protest against the Nazi atrocities.
Metropolitan Andrey died on November 1, 1944. He is buried in a crypt of St. George Cathedral in Lviv.
Source: RISU
Turkey: government harassment of Orthodox monastery
The existence of the world’s oldest Syrian Orthodox monastery, located in Turkey, is threatened by the actions of government officials and Muslim Kurds, The Economist reports. Built in 397, Mor Gabriel Monastery predates the 451 schism that led the Orthodox Oriental churches to cease to be in full communion with the Holy See.
The government, which has long refused to allow the monks to register their ownership of the land, is now seeking to confiscate the monastery’s property.
SOURCE: CatholicCulture.org
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
The government, which has long refused to allow the monks to register their ownership of the land, is now seeking to confiscate the monastery’s property.
SOURCE: CatholicCulture.org
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Greek Orthodox parish sues for right to build near Ground Zero site
Officials of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church claim that they had reached an agreement with the Port Authority for the rebuilding of the church. They argue that the officials have filed to fulfill their responsibilities under the terms of a preliminary agreement reached in 2008.
The building of houses of worship near the site where the World Trade Center once stood has become controversial because of a separate plan to construct a mosque nearby.
Source: CatholicCulture
Monday, December 6, 2010
Cartoon about Ukrainian Churches
“In future, we plan to extend the list of the churches and monasteries: we will draw the viewers’ attention to the remaining wooden churches of the western region of Ukraine, the spiritual shrines of Kyiv, the southern and eastern regions of our state. The series is designed for schoolchildren but it is also watched by their mothers, grandmothers, teachers who write positive responses in their letters. Students studying architecture and design also take interest in the series,” said the producer of the Company “Art-Video,” Zoriana Zaniuk.
The new animation product combines 2D and 3D animation. The main characters were created in 3D and all the rest in 2D. “The idea to create such a cartoon was conceived during the work on the series “Legends of Ukraine.” We felt that the subject of the Ukrainian shrines deserves a separate thematic line. The fairy-tale pictures, used as the background, and the movements of the characters are created by animators not only from Lviv but also from other cities of Ukraine. As we retold the known historic facts we tried to visually reproduce the events and process of formation of sacral objects. Our children now watch cartoons created for the Russian money and showing the Ukraine’s formation, development, culture and traditions from the Russian viewpoint. For the many years of independence of Ukraine, nothing has been done to raise the national spirit by means of animation. We have only the famous Cossacks playing football and foreign cartoons translated into Ukrainian (Russian). Meanwhile, Ukrainian animation specialists are appreciated by foreign countries more than by their own one…” The main characters of the cartoon, a painter boy with a magic pencil and his faithful friend, nightingale travel to the ancient times, everything around returns to life and the characters become participants of the events which influenced the fate of the sacral objects. The painter and his bird friend, who speaks human language, not only admire the beauty and majesty of the Ukrainian shrines but also defend monastery walls from attackers, rebuild ruined churches and chapels. не лише милуються красою та величчю українських святинь, а й обороняють монастирські фортеці від нападників, відбудовують зруйновані церкви та каплиці.
“I watched the first editions of the cartoon about our shrines. I told my acquaintances about them and they support the idea of the “Spiritual necklace. It is our children who need such cartoons the most. The Ukrainian television has not broadcasted anything good, educational, spiritual. The children watch foreign cartoons about various monsters and are frightened by them. The parents bring them to priests to consecrate water over them and read special prayers. As they watch cartoons, children are to receive something positive, learn something new and interesting. What we sow in their hearts today, we will reap tomorrow,” said the senior priest of the Church of Birth of the Holy Mother of God (UGCC) in Sokilnyky, Fr. Volodymyr Pavlyk. In the nearest future, the project “Spiritual necklace” will be presented in one of the orphanages of Lviv. The series will become a Christmas present to the children.
Source: RISU
Saturday, December 4, 2010
"Don't wish me a Happy Holiday "
BILL WENHAM Special to The (St. Catharines) Standard
Come on, people, wake up and let's all celebrate. It's the holiday season! But whilst we are doing that, let's ask ourselves just how many more things we are going to allow to change without doing anything about it? Right now, we are all being told this is not really Christmas anymore; it is now the Holiday season. For more than 2,000 years, this has been Christmas - a celebration of the birth of Christ. It is not a holiday, folks! It's Christmastime. A holiday is a vacation. So why is this Holiday thing happening? To avoid offending anyone, that's why.
But how about offending me and the millions of, others like me worldwide? Don't we count? It has become disgustingly obvious that the 'F' word is now perfectly acceptable in books, movies and television, as if that doesn't offend anyone! But using the word "Christmas" in advertising and greetings no longer will be, apparently. "Happy Holidays" is so bland and inoffensive, too, isn't it, regardless of whether it means anything to anyone. If it is no longer Christmas, then other things will obviously have to change as well. You will no longer be able to buy or decorate a Christmas tree. The gifts will be placed under your Holiday tree.
And why do we even exchange gifts at Christmas anyway? It is merely a symbolic reenactment of the gold, frankincense and myrrh offered to the newborn baby Jesus. Whoa, hang on a minute; if we do away with Christmas, I guess that means we'll also have to do away with the giving and receiving of gifts on the Holiday as well then, won't we? Incidentally, even the word "holiday" comes from “Holy Day” so, as you can see, this can get very, very complicated.
If we are going to do this thing properly, to make absolutely certain no one at all, anywhere, gets in the least little bit offended, the words of some our old favourites will have to be changed as well. After all, we can't just go halfway on this thing. . It must be all or nothing. We can't only offend half the people halfway, can we? It will now have to be I'm dreaming of a White Holiday, Oh Holiday Tree, Have yourself a Merry little Holiday, The Twelve Days of the Holidays and so on. But it may be a bit late to ask Charles Dickens to rename his Christmas classic A Holiday Carol or for Dr. Seuss to now call his book How the Grinch stole the Holidays. By the same token, if we are being really fair about all this, Hanukkah, Ramadan, and Kwanzaa will all have to go as well won't they, because if people went around wishing each other those greetings; who would that offend? After all, fair's fair, isn't it?
Likewise, there can be no more Santa Claus. Why is that, you ask? Santa Claus is a contraction of the Christian St. Nicholas. If you do away with one thing, you obviously must do away with all the others, right? So, do we want a future with no Christmas trees, no Santa Claus and no gift giving? I avoid shopping in any store that advertises the "Holiday Season" if I can, although it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find any that don't. Where one goes, they all go, like a flock of sheep - and that's the problem. They may miss out on a buck or two of sales if they don't all conform.
I will also not respond to anyone who wishes me a “Happy Holiday” unless I'm about to leave for a two week vacation in the sun somewhere. I am not offended by other people's beliefs and celebrations, so why should they be offended by mine? Happy Holidays, instead of Merry Christmas, however, now that is something that really offends me! So what do I say to Happy Holidays, people? I say Bah Humbug!
But I'll always be pleased to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and very Happy New Year, whoever you are, wherever you are and whatever your personal beliefs, as I always have.
Bill Wenham is retired travel industry professional who resides in St. Catharines. This article appeared in the St. Catharines Standard, Saturday, December 4, 2010.
Come on, people, wake up and let's all celebrate. It's the holiday season! But whilst we are doing that, let's ask ourselves just how many more things we are going to allow to change without doing anything about it? Right now, we are all being told this is not really Christmas anymore; it is now the Holiday season. For more than 2,000 years, this has been Christmas - a celebration of the birth of Christ. It is not a holiday, folks! It's Christmastime. A holiday is a vacation. So why is this Holiday thing happening? To avoid offending anyone, that's why.
And why do we even exchange gifts at Christmas anyway? It is merely a symbolic reenactment of the gold, frankincense and myrrh offered to the newborn baby Jesus. Whoa, hang on a minute; if we do away with Christmas, I guess that means we'll also have to do away with the giving and receiving of gifts on the Holiday as well then, won't we? Incidentally, even the word "holiday" comes from “Holy Day” so, as you can see, this can get very, very complicated.
If we are going to do this thing properly, to make absolutely certain no one at all, anywhere, gets in the least little bit offended, the words of some our old favourites will have to be changed as well. After all, we can't just go halfway on this thing. . It must be all or nothing. We can't only offend half the people halfway, can we? It will now have to be I'm dreaming of a White Holiday, Oh Holiday Tree, Have yourself a Merry little Holiday, The Twelve Days of the Holidays and so on. But it may be a bit late to ask Charles Dickens to rename his Christmas classic A Holiday Carol or for Dr. Seuss to now call his book How the Grinch stole the Holidays. By the same token, if we are being really fair about all this, Hanukkah, Ramadan, and Kwanzaa will all have to go as well won't they, because if people went around wishing each other those greetings; who would that offend? After all, fair's fair, isn't it?
Likewise, there can be no more Santa Claus. Why is that, you ask? Santa Claus is a contraction of the Christian St. Nicholas. If you do away with one thing, you obviously must do away with all the others, right? So, do we want a future with no Christmas trees, no Santa Claus and no gift giving? I avoid shopping in any store that advertises the "Holiday Season" if I can, although it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find any that don't. Where one goes, they all go, like a flock of sheep - and that's the problem. They may miss out on a buck or two of sales if they don't all conform.
I will also not respond to anyone who wishes me a “Happy Holiday” unless I'm about to leave for a two week vacation in the sun somewhere. I am not offended by other people's beliefs and celebrations, so why should they be offended by mine? Happy Holidays, instead of Merry Christmas, however, now that is something that really offends me! So what do I say to Happy Holidays, people? I say Bah Humbug!
But I'll always be pleased to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and very Happy New Year, whoever you are, wherever you are and whatever your personal beliefs, as I always have.
Bill Wenham is retired travel industry professional who resides in St. Catharines. This article appeared in the St. Catharines Standard, Saturday, December 4, 2010.
Orthodox and Greek Catholics Celebrate Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Eastern Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on December 4 (November 21 according to the old style). , one of the 12 greatest church feasts. The Gospel does not mention the event of the presentation in the Temple. This feast, as well as Christmas and Assumption of the Mother of God, is based on Church Tradition and apocrypha, primarily, the Proto-Gospel of James and pseudo Gospel of Matthew "About the birth of the Most Holy Virgin."
These works say that the parents of the Virgin Mary, St. Joachim and Anna were childless and vowed to send their child to serve God in the Temple of Jerusalem if it is born. The Lord heard their prayer and gave them a daughter. When she was three, the parents brought her to the Temple and handed her over to High Priest Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist. The Most Holy Mother of God stayed there for many years until she was betrothed to St. Joseph.
The feast was first mentioned in the 5th century; however, it became wide spread in the Near East only several hundred years later. We know from the sermons of Patriarch German (715–730) of Constantinople and Patriarch Tarasius (784–806) of Constaninople that the feast of Presentation was established in the 8th century. The Sinai Gospel of the 8th century, which was presented to the Sinai Monastery by Emperor Theodosius III (715–717), mentions this feast among twelve other ones. The feast was included in the Greek Church calendars of the 9th century. From that time, it became widespread.
The Sinai Canons of the 9th–10th centuries mentions the feast of the Presentation as the feast "Of the Most Holy Mother of God who was brought to the Temple at the age of three." The Typicon of the Great Church of Constantinople (9th–10th centuries) mentions the date of November 21 as "Assembly of the Holy Mother of God, who was brought and handed over to the Temple at the age of three." The service for this feast was compiled by Gregory of Nicomedia (9th century) and Basil Pagariot.
The feast was introduced in the West only in the end of the 14th century and was spread all over Europe in the middle of the 15th century. The Western Church celebrates it on November 21.
As Yulian Katrii notes in his book "Know Your Rite," in the Middle Ages, the feast was a favorite theme in iconography.
Source RISU
These works say that the parents of the Virgin Mary, St. Joachim and Anna were childless and vowed to send their child to serve God in the Temple of Jerusalem if it is born. The Lord heard their prayer and gave them a daughter. When she was three, the parents brought her to the Temple and handed her over to High Priest Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist. The Most Holy Mother of God stayed there for many years until she was betrothed to St. Joseph.
The feast was first mentioned in the 5th century; however, it became wide spread in the Near East only several hundred years later. We know from the sermons of Patriarch German (715–730) of Constantinople and Patriarch Tarasius (784–806) of Constaninople that the feast of Presentation was established in the 8th century. The Sinai Gospel of the 8th century, which was presented to the Sinai Monastery by Emperor Theodosius III (715–717), mentions this feast among twelve other ones. The feast was included in the Greek Church calendars of the 9th century. From that time, it became widespread. The Sinai Canons of the 9th–10th centuries mentions the feast of the Presentation as the feast "Of the Most Holy Mother of God who was brought to the Temple at the age of three." The Typicon of the Great Church of Constantinople (9th–10th centuries) mentions the date of November 21 as "Assembly of the Holy Mother of God, who was brought and handed over to the Temple at the age of three." The service for this feast was compiled by Gregory of Nicomedia (9th century) and Basil Pagariot.
The feast was introduced in the West only in the end of the 14th century and was spread all over Europe in the middle of the 15th century. The Western Church celebrates it on November 21.
As Yulian Katrii notes in his book "Know Your Rite," in the Middle Ages, the feast was a favorite theme in iconography.
Source RISU
Friday, December 3, 2010
"STOP BLAMING GREEK CATHOLICS"
“A mention was made of those wretched Greek Catholics, Uniates who are to blame for everything. If they did not exist, there would be peace and quiet. But as you know, the Pope and Patriarch of Moscow cannot reach agreement in many other things,” stressed Patriarch Lubomyr.
The head of UGCC stressed that he, personally, does not know the answer to the question “What is “uniatism?” and asked to prove the fault of the Greek Catholics.
“What wrong have we done and continue to do and to whom? Please, prove it by documents, even in court, if you wish. Another very important thing about the relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Let me make a somewhat dramatic statement: for some reason, I suspect that we do not desire real unity enough. If we wanted unity very much, we would have got it already. We are not ready to sacrifice a great lot for the sake of real unity between Christians from all sides and without excluding anyone. All of us, Christians, do not want it enough,” concluded the head of UGCC.
"The fact that bishops and theologians gather and sign several documents will not make a substantial difference. The difference is that people should aspire."
According to him, the inter-church committee including the Catholics and all the Orthodox Churches, who, from 1970-s, have worked with interruptions but returned to the round table, functions only at the level of theologians and bishops whereas it should all be done at the level of people.
“We have also bad experiences. Take for instance the Union of Florence. The bishops reached agreement. So what? There was no result. It may happen again. The fact that bishops and theologians gather and sign several documents will not make a substantial difference. The difference is that people should aspire. And people should be taught for that,” stressed the patriarch.
The head of UGCC stressed that today, Greek Catholic are faced with a task to present the position of the Eastern Christians in the west and to be a bridge between the East and West: “You see, we are the unfortunate Greek Catholics on the border between the two great cultures: the Byzantine and Latin ones, between the Roman Catholicism and the confessional Orthodoxy, as we consider ourselves the Orthodox in unity with the Apostolic See. Let me assure you that we make concrete steps in Rome to present the position of the Eastern Christians. Three weeks ago, a session of the Pontifical Council for Promotion of Unity Between Christians was held, which was headed by Cardinal Casper and is now headed by Cardinal Koch. I was present at the session and was one of the representatives of the Eastern Church, who spoke of the problems which really hinder us to prevent the theological difficulties from being real difficulties. In short, let me assure you that we arte doing what we can. And if you can, support us by prayer, please.”
As RISU reported earlier, the conference was organized by the State Committee of Ukraine on Matters of Nationalities and Religions, Religious Studies Department of Skovoroda’s Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, M. Drahomanov’s National Pedagogical [Teacher Training] University and Ukrainian Association of Religious Study Experts.
Source: RISU
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Turkish government recognises Ecumenical Patriarch
“Today is a great day for our Great Mother Church. The orphanage on Princes Island (Buyukada) has been given back to us. What we inherited from our ancestors has also been returned to us. We could not tolerate the injustice done to us. We first turned to Turkey’s courts. Since we lost all of our cases, we turned to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which gave us justice,” the Patriarch said."the official recognition of our Patriarchate as a legal person"
See Asia News for the rest of the story
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